Work starts next week to begin removal of Ga. 400 toll booths

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - Work begins on Georgia 400 to take down the toll booths next week, so they can stop collecting that 50 cents from you the week before Thanksgiving.

“The 400 commuters can be reassured their toll has gone toward helping their commute, but also projects up and down 400 corridor north of 285 as well," said Deputy Executive Director of the Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority Bert Brantley.

Beginning the week of Nov. 18, the Georgia State road and Tollway Authority will stop collecting that toll.

The first signs of the project will be Oct. 25 with some new striping on the road.

"The striping is to prepare to shift traffic when tolls end. We'll move three lanes of traffic where the cruise (lanes) are right now,” said project manager for the Georgia Department of Transportation Jeremy Busy.

Busby said 66 signs will need to be modified, meaning they have to take off the toll road message, or completely remove some signs. He said the bulk of the work will be after the new year, including demolishing the toll canopy and the tolling equipment. The lanes will be shifting to the cruise lanes and everything on the outside will be demolished.

State officials are reminding commuters the $3.5 million project won't be completed until the fall of 2014. Once completed, traffic may increase by 10 percent, or 11,000 more cars a day.

During the construction project, there will be double traffic fines in a work zone.

Even though Brantley said the toll booths are coming down, that doesn't mean that's the end of paying for your commute on 400. He said there's a feasibility study currently going on whether they should add a Peach Pass lane on 400, north of Interstate 285.